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It attracted considerable attention when Kim Jong-un’s wife Ri Sol-ju earlier this week suddenly returned to her husband’s side in public, after not appearing for over a year.
Sol-ju has also been missing several times before for longer periods. This time it was speculated if she was pregnant or had health problems. According to the intelligence of his arch nemesis South Korea, he avoided the public due to fears of the crown.
But suddenly he sat there, among hundreds of social leaders, the vast majority of men. The occasion was the celebration of Bright Star Day on February 16, in memory of the birthday of Kim Jong-il, Jong-un’s father and predecessor as North Korea’s leader.
– Watch out for the “crown wind”
– When the general secretary arrived at the theater auditorium with his wife Ri Sol-ju to welcome the music, all the participants erupted in thunderous cheers, reports the North Korean state channel KCNA, according to News.com.au.
Not even on the list
The other big question that comes up when looking at photos from the shoot is:
Why is it that none of the several hundred participants, who sit shoulder to shoulder, wear bandages?
One possible, and probable, explanation is that North Korea officially has no COVID-19 cases; the country doesn’t even appear on the Worldometers country map, where neighboring countries South Korea and China are registered with nearly 90,000 cases each.
NORMAL PEOPLE: Otherwise, in society, strict infection control measures such as bandage order are applied. This photo is from Pyongyang on February 12. Photo: KCNA / KNS / AFP / NTB
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On the other hand, the communist country already closed a year ago introduced a sanitary napkin, along with other strict measures such as closing restaurants and banning official events. Borders were closed.
But as early as April, the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s parliament, convened without any of the delegates wearing masks, according to the 38 North analysis site.
North Korea’s relationship with the pandemic has occasionally had a humorous effect, such as in October, when residents were asked to watch out for China’s “crown winds” and stay home.
Appeared after a year
– Several hundred died
However, foreign analysts have very little faith in this. According to Business Insider, the South Korean press has reported nearly 200 deaths by corona among soldiers and thousands in quarantine.
US forces deployed in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea have also occasionally noticed little activity on the North Korean side, according to Bloomberg.
According to the online newspaper The Daily NK, run by North Korean defectors, the country’s doctors have been ordered not to talk about COVID-19 at all, so as not to destroy Jong-un’s reputation and “image”.
Avisa reported in November that a total of 80,000 civilians were or had been in quarantine, and that there had recently been an increase in the number. In addition, some neighbors began to suspect a covert operation by the authorities.
In July, the city of Kaesong was closed after an infection was suspected in a person who had previously fled to South Korea. According to the WHO representative in North Korea, Edwin Salvador, the result after the coronation test was “inconclusive” and, shortly after, all restrictions were lifted in Kaesong, according to Reuters.
Authorities have also cracked down on violations of infection control regulations. A public official was executed in August for taking goods from the Chinese side of the border, according to NPR.
Malnutrition
If anything, the people of North Korea are believed to be particularly susceptible to infection, as the country has a miserable economy and many live in extreme poverty and are malnourished; According to The Independent, 40 percent of the population is vulnerable to coronary heart disease.
WITHOUT: From the Supreme People’s Assembly – Parliament of North Korea – January 17. Here too, face masks and other visible infection control measures are lacking. Photo: KCNA / KNS / AP / NTB
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Dagbladet has previously spoken with Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of East Asian and Korean studies at the University of Oslo, about the issue. It supports the view that North Korea most likely has high levels of infection.
– They say two contradictory things: that no one is infected, but at the same time many are known to be in quarantine, Tikhonov said at the time.
The professor claimed that North Korea has very inadequate hospital facilities to treat coronary heart disease. In addition, the immune system of people suffers from the one-sided diet in the country, where there is a lack of animal protein.
– The largest source is fish, but consumption is lower than in China, South Korea and Japan. They eat beef very rarely, Tikhonov said.
